In the far northeast reaches of our state, the bleached antler of a caribou sits quietly on a shelf in the back of a ranger station. Seemingly out of place, the antler is not as incongruous as it first appears.

From the rugged and wild tip of Cape Flattery, Washington, to the undulating dunes of Bandon, Oregon, the Northwest coastline has lured wanderers for centuries—some of them straight into the rocks (one reason this stretch is dotted by dozens of pi